Move over 5 Seconds of Summer, 5 Seconds of Sexx have come to ROCK your world.
The band formerly known as 5 Seconds of Summer were set to hit the stage Thursday October 29 at the iHeartRadio Theater in New York City, but what happened was something straight out of wannabe-80’s kid’s dreams. We all knew the boys had special costumes prepared, but how could anyone be ready for what happened. The clock struck 7 and out sauntered Ashton Axxe, Michael Magixx, Lucas Loxx, and Calum Coxx, known as 5 Seconds of Sexx.
In full costume from wigs and eyeliner, down to the leather pants with happy trails in-between, 5 Seconds of Summer delivered a special performance to remember. They started with new single “Hey Everybody!” followed by a short Q&A with Elvis Duran of Z100.
The first half of the concert was full of these short Q&As with questions including: what was the scariest movie they’d ever seen (Calum said “Twilight,” Luke said “Insidious 3”), what bands they want to see live (Michael said Twenty One Pilots to massive approval, Ashton jokingly added Fetty Wap), and if they’d ever had a terrible job (Ashton of course said joining 5 Seconds of Summer was the worst).
During this segment which was being live streamed online, the boys sang “Jet Black Heart,” “Amnesia,” “She’s Kinda Hot,” and “She Looks So Perfect.” The second half of the set was full of jokes that Luke was actually Bret Michaels and Calum Nikki Sixx of Poison and Motley Crüe respectively; these references going over the heads of many in the crowd.
Notable moments were the boys discussion of Jones Beach being their favorite venue and their excitement for Madison Square Garden next year. Their performance of the “4th? 5th? 6th? Maybe 7th?” (Ashton needs a refresher on their track list) song on the album “Permanent Vacation” brought rousing excitement from the crowd only met by “Jet Black Heart” and classic fan favorite off the Deluxe edition of their first album, “Voodoo Doll.” The crowd’s reaction to these new songs matched the band’s as their energy and enthusiasm reached definitive highs during the same songs.
While the wigs may have caused guitarist Michael Clifford to tick as he attempted to flip his hair out of his eyes and lead singer Luke Hemmings to miss a few chords as he brushed his so called “Loxx” out of the way, the boys performed with considerable growth from their last performance in the theater back in July of 2014.
5 Seconds of Summer aren’t your typical teen band anymore. Shedding most of their “boyband” mislabels and releasing some real rock inspired music on their second album “Sounds Good Feels Good” this past week, the boys are ready to be taken seriously as musicians. Even though they still are the fun and not too serious boys the fans love.